Scythia and the relations to their Greek neighbours: settlement material from the Lower Dnieper region

Bylkova, V.

Archaeological discoveries in the North Black Sea area reveal in separate regions the chronology and the dynamics of interaction by Greek settlers with native populations with respect to new archaeological data. The period of coexistence of barbarian and Greek populations in the Lower Dnieper region can be divided into several stages. This territory was not part of the initial process of Greek colonisation on the Northern Black sea littoral. The earliest long-term settlements of the Iron Age in the region under review are those in the estuary of Dnieper, and another group, founded by semi-nomadic Scyths in the region’s hinterland. Both groups of settlements should be dated from the beginning of the 4th till the first quarter of the 3rd centuries BC. This first stage of coexistence may be included into the fourth period in the history of the North Black Sea coast in antiquity (after Yu.A.Vinogradov and K.Marchenko). For this period the number of Scythian barrow graves on the steppes is the highest and an increase of population may be assumed. Settlements in the northern part of the region under review were assigned to the Scythian steppe culture on the basis of the investigation of the Kamenskoe fortified site by B.Grakov, but his dates are corrected now. There are no reasons to offer that appearance of Scythian settlements  was a result of Greek influence. In the economy of nomads, and in particular its semi-nomadic sub-type subsidiary forms of activity, agriculture above all, have an important place. All three types of cattle raising economy, relating to nomadic life, are linked to some extent or other with agriculture. Within the framework of nomadic cultures the organisation of agricultural-craft settlements and trading places is usual. This may be seen in the case of the Huns and other nomads. The nomads experience a constant demographic surplus in relation to the possibilities of their environment. From this derives a centrifugal movement in a more or less constant population whereby a true safety valve is created through which surplus people are removed to cultivated land, as J.-P.Digard describes it. But such a form of settled existence, affecting mainly impoverished nomads cannot be considered the last stage of an irreversible weakening or decline of nomadism. On the contrary, it is one of the conditions of its survival. M.Artamonov had pointed to the rise of agriculture among the Scyths in the interests of the cattle raising economy and not in opposition to it. The Scythian economico-cultural type was based on a mix of extensive cattle raising and agriculture in the river valleys, combined with productive activity, primarily for their own needs, but possibly for trade.

 
With regard to the Scyths in paleoanthropology, it was earlier asserted that the closest group to them in craniology came from the graves of the western area of the Srubnaya culture of the Middle Bronze Age. Unfortunately, the graves of the southern settlements are often located beneath modern villages and there is no series of skulls available to the anthropologists. But one skull from the excavations at “Usad’ba Litvinenko” was handed over to the laboratory of anthropological reconstruction in Moscow along with some Scythian material, the skull was determined as being gracil, assigned to the Mediterranean type. Anthropological reconstructions of the sculls from a Scythian barrow and from Usad'ba Litvinenko are proposed to your attention.     

The analysis of the archaeological data reveals great distinctions between synchronous Olbian and Scythian (of the hinterland) populations at the level of economic and cultural types. Olbians and Scyths settled in different natural zones, one can trace differences in their settlements both in topography, stratigraphy, planning, buildings, fortifications, dwellings and in the quantity and structure of the finds etc. For the Scythian group a headland position in an area of plains alongside tributaries and side-channels was characteristic. An area of settlements usually is at the size of 1-4 hectares, the largest central fortificated site, Kamenskoe, is up to 1200 hectares. As far as settlements of the Scythian group are concerned, they include areas with no cultural stratum. The cultural layer is of medium thickness and contains only few building remains and a limited material. Defensive works are represented here by ramparts and ditches (in Kamenskoe, Kapulovskoe, Pervomaevka 2) while in the southern settlements stone fortification walls are still used (Gluboka Pristan'). The territory is not continuously built up and no system of building organisation is traceable. Dwellings and household structures of different shape and size are randomly situated. The ethnographers have shown that the non-compact distribution of the dwellings and compounds of the village is a sign of the very beginning of sedentarization. Dugouts and above-ground post and beam houses are characteristic of Scythian settlements.      

There are represented scythian components in the culture of the Olbian settlements, but they are neither significant nor concentrated in separate assemblages. Making a comparison of dugouts and semi-dugouts is especially important, as they are present in both groups of settlements. They differ in size and depth, and other details "benches" in the subsoil, oval hearths of rammed clay or holes filled with charcoal are typical for Scythian dwellings. The use of stone is minimal; mud bricks and tiles are not employed at all. There are differencies also in the common type of pits, which were in use of the inhabitants of those dwellings.

The material from the Scythian settlements is different from the finds in the settlements at the mouth of Dnieper, both in quantity and in structure. In the ceramic complex of the Scythian settlements, amphora fragments constitute 40% (predominantly Heraklean and Thasian), wheel made table ware up to 1% (Attic black glazed and Olbian) and hand made pottery of Scythian types of no great variety 60%. It is instructive that even the traditional barbarian element in the culture, namely the hand made pottery, is not the same in both groups of settlements. Hand made pottery is encountered throughout the entire period of existence of the Olbian settlements and make up usually 5-6%, but this pottery is quite varied and not restricted to barbarian shapes mainly Scythian, while Geto-Thracian types are rare in the eastern part of the Olbian agricultural territory, having some similarity with contemporary wheel made wares.

The differences between the early settlements of the northern and southern groups are also traced in other categories of artifactttious material. Among the finds in the Scythian settlements there are many bones and articles made from them as well as rejects, and incomplete things. A large quantity of tools made from stone is also a characteristic feature.

Judging by the appearance of its culture, the population of the north-eastern shore of the Dnieper estuary (far, or distant, or large Olbian chora) lived in the same manner, i.e. according to the Greek cultural tradition, irrespective of ethnic differences. The olbian population met its needs from its own agricultural activity and a highly developed intra-polis market with use of Olbian coins. In the Olbian settlements abundant evidence of fishing activity was found, which is absent in the inner Scythian area. Pyramidal clay loom weights is a common find in all the dwellings of the Olbian chora. They are seen as evidence of a domestic character of the textile production, spindle whorls of clay and lead are also present (in the Scythian settlements only clay spindle whorls are found). The presence of the remains of iron production with use of lake and bog ores and primitive kilns is characteristic for all Scythian settlements. A set of metal articles is specific - Scyths did not need nails, for example. In all the synchronous Olbian settlements iron, bronze and lead artefacts are found, but no traces of a corresponding production have been discovered, not even isolated pieces of slag or ore etc. Finds of slag relate exclusively to the production of pottery and the same is true of objects which may hypothetically be identified as productive. One of the explanations offered is the suggestion by S.Pan'kov that the establishment of economic relations between Greek colonists and native tribes resulted in an export of iron by the barbarians, another possibility is an intra-polis market in this case as far as this production was developed in Greek centres, including Olbia Pontica. We do not know for certain that inhabitants of the eastern part of the Olbian territory took directly part in an extra-poleis trade, it is possible that iron articles and hornless cattle were acquired by the rural Olbian population from the Scyths. The presence of hand-made pots, bronze arrow-heads, iron knives and bits of Scythian types in the Olbian settlements attest the links with the Scyths. Only hand-made ware and whorls are found en masse from the time of the foundation through all periods of existence of all the Olbian settlements (as in Olbia-city also). It shows that just women were constantly included into that population, it is one which is expected. Thus Scythian components are represented in the culture of the Olbian settlements, but they are neither significant nor concentrated in separate assemblages.

Comparison of finds, connected with a "spiritual life", is significant in this case. The evidence from the Olbian settlements reveal Greek cults in the presence of terracottas, (especially popular was the worship of Demeter. The data provided by the graffiti include dedications to gods (to Zeus, Apollo, Herakles, Nike), personal names, individual letters of the Greek alphabet and monograms. Similarity to the spiritual culture of especially Olbia is further attested by the find of a lead boukranion, connected with the cult of Dionysos. As for finds in the Scythian settlements, with relation to the cults of agriculture and fertility, there is a single piece of an anthropomorphic statuette. Its closest analogies are present in the culture of the local forest-steppe population (analogies are represented by B.Shramko). Only three graffitis in Greek on imported vessels are found in Scythian settlements, all in Kamenskoe (trade centre). Finds of Greek coins are also all from the Kamenskoe settlement. According to the archaeological data, the spread of Greek culture, has its influence on the Scythian population displays only in wine consumption, respectedly, through finds of amphoras.

There are no testimonies of a complete or mainly Scythian population in the Olbian chora, as it is reflected in the culture of everyday life. Some people penetrated from one society to another, but we can’t notice a process of wide hellenization or barbarization. It is probably more correct to define this stage as a period of adoption of some Scyths in to the Greek culture. According to the archaeological data is mainly commercial activity, without involvement of another cultural type, traced at the first stage of the Scythian/Greek coexistence in the region. All the most substantial features are different in the two groups of populations: economy, mode of life and worship of cults. The spread of alien elements doesn’t look as dominant in neither the Greek nor the Scythian culture.

The elements of similarity between them are of no significance: i.e. the use of ramparts and ditches in fortifications, the presence of Greek imports (given that the volume and breakdown are different), the pots of Scythian types (there are observable differences, generally, in the selection of hand-made pottery),  clay spindle whorls, which may be evidence of the presence of Scyths among the inhabitants. These may have been a  dependent population or the wives of the colonists. To judge by the absence of purely Scythian complexes, this population lost its ethnic markers in the material culture, which may be a reflection of the process of assimilation and inter-breeding. The barbarians did not determine the general character of the culture and numerically were not able to prevail. Elements of barbarian culture in the settlements on the shore of the Dnieper estuary do not seem to have been fundamental and a major determinant. With regard to trade links between the Olbian population and the Scythian tribes of the steppe there is some evidence in finds of Greek imports in the Scythian graves and sites. There is no definite evidence relating to the links of this population with the Scythian steppe tribes, but we may suppose the possibility of the acquisition from the Scythians of iron and hornless cattle.

The Dnieper/Borysthenes proved to be the only great river of the north Black Sea littoral on which no Greek city was founded. The model of coexistence of the populations in this region had its own distinctive features, above all because, from the time of the Late Bronze Age, there was no settled population on the Lower Dnieper. Apparently, interrelations between the nomadic Scyths and the colonists developed differently over the centuries. Conflicts are not excluded, and in any case they may be one of the explanations for the fires in the settlements and the presence of arrowheads of Scythian type and horse bits in the ashes. However, they could not have been the direct cause of the cessation of life in these settlements, since at the beginning of the 3rd century BC nothing of this kind is observed. The population departs, abandons its homes and hides its money. On the whole, according to the archaeological data, the end of the first period of existence of the settlements in the first quarter of the 3rd century BC does not create an impression of universal catastrophe. The condition of the cultural layer does not offer a basis for any real conclusions. The upper part of the cultural layer in all the monuments has suffered from ploughing, so that it is not possible to make use of any stratigraphical data. In some cases it may be understood that houses were left with pottery and other things in situ. One also notes the finding of a woman’s sleleton on the floor of a semi-dugout and a layer of fire debris in an area alongside the rampart and ditch in the fortified settlement of Glubokaya Pristan’ (in the excavation of S. Buiskikh). Traces of fires have been uncovered at Belozerskoe, but they belong to the 4th century and not to the time when life there ended. Indirect evidence of the emergence of some kind of threat may be seen in the find of hoards of Olbian coins "borysthenes" of 300-280 BC in the immediate vicinity of the settlement of Belozerskoe and on the territory of the fortified settlement of Kamenka. Nevertheless, we see that houses were abandoned, that in places pottery and heavy things were left behind in the southern settlements. This we do not see in any of the Scythian settlements. This situation adds to the general picture of crisis on the north coast of the Black Sea in the first quarter of the 3rd century.

The fate of the Scyths and southern settlers evolved differently.

The uninterrupted pressure of the Scyths on the territory of the north-western Crimea is traced in the material from the settlements over the course of the third and second centuries. In the Kerch peninsula from the second quarter-middle of the 3rd century the abandonment or destruction of rural settlements and the active fortification of the cities is clearly documented. Later Neapolis Scythica was founded, followed by the other "late Scythian" sites in the Crimea. In the Dobrudja the presence of Scyths is observed at the end of the 4th century-first quarter of the third; the final phase of Scythia Minor in this territory is dated to the last quarter of the 2nd century-beginning of the first (after M.Coja and S.Andrukh). The archaeological and numismatic data corroborate the written sources: Dionysios of Halikarnassos notes that "the country of the Celts ... abuts the Scythian and Thracian tribes on the side of Boreas and the river Istros" (XIV, 1). This situation is assigned to the third century BC. In recent years Scythian barrows and settlements of the second half of the 3rd and of the 2nd century have been identified in the Lower Dniester region. As far as the Lower Dnieper is concerned, there is no archaeological evidence of the presence of a Scythian or any other population from the second quarter of the 3rd century to the middle of the 2nd; in particular no nomadic burials of this time have been discovered. 

After a period of abandonment in the Lower Dnieper region from the second quarter of the 3rd to the second half of the 2nd century BC, the next stage in barbarian/Greek coexistence is dated between the second half of the 2nd century BC and the 3rd century AD, where new groups of settlements appeared. It coincided with the presence of Sarmatian tribes, Sarmatian graves are not dated earlier than the second part of the 2nd century BC (after A.Simonenko and S.Polin). As an example of a Sarmatian material it's we have finds from the Solontsy assemblage which belongs to the Kherson museum. This set of artifacts could belong to a grave. It includes jewellery, a mirror, beads and two fibulae (of bronze and gold).

This period was the epoch of an intensive interaction between Greeks and different tribes, there can be no doubt about the existence and the development of Greek culture there, this is also traced in the settlements of the eastern part of the rural territory. The territory of the north-eastern shore of the Dnieper estuary was reoccupied in the period of the rebirth of Olbia following the Getic sack. The uniformity of the archaeological record  of the Olbian settlements allowed S.Buiskikh and A.Burakov to make a proposal that they had a more or less uniform structure in this population, in which were included representatives of different ethne, though the descendants of the inhabitants of the polis of the preceding period remained dominant. The fortified settlements arose in a territory in which the early settlements were located, but on new and more secure sites. On the other hand, though showing traces of Greek influence, the barbarian territories didn’t transform into Greek ones. Despite common features in economic models the differences between Olbian and the barbarian populations of the hinterland can be traced in the main cultural characteristics, as the size of settlements, the use of space, buildings, fortifications, structure of finds, the selection of coins, and in the assemblages of crops and domestic animals; they also differ in the time of their appearance (which is earlier in the barbarian settlements) and in the date of their existence. During the investigations in the 1950s an archaeological culture of these hinterland settlements was not defined straight away. A proposal of their Late Scythian cultural characteristic was based on the existence here of an earlier Scythian culture and based on a similarity of hand made pots with the Scythian ones. 15 Late Scythian settlements are known, some of them were excavated. Results of the excavations in both the settlement and necropolis in Zolota Balka, more than 7000 m², were published by M.Vjazmitina in two monographs in the early 1960s. N. Pogrebova and N. Elagina also published the results of their works at approximately the same time. But some of their conclusions have now become obsolete. Most recent excavations were conducted by M. Abikulova, N. Gavriluk, V. Zubar and Ye. Chernenko in Ljubimovka, Velyka Lepetikha, Annovka and Znamenka.  

The plan and house constructions of Late Scythian settlements were being described as Greco-barbarian. At this stage a similarity is observed in the economic structure of the population of the southern and northern settlements which leaves its mark on their material culture. All Late Scythian settlements are rectangular in plan, their territory is bounded by the shore of the Dnieper or its tributaries and by short, steep ravines, supplemented by two lines of fortification. The right bank is 20-40 m high. The main area consists of 1-4 hectares, a second line of fortification encircled an area of 10-14 hectares. The use of stone in constructing houses is common, one- and two-room ground-level houses are characteristic; isolated dugouts of shallow depth are encountered and also wattle and daub and pise buildings. The most impressive blocks of houses are discovered in Zolota Balka.  Tiles were used extremely rarely. The masonry was irregular, laid flat on orthostat  socles. The remains of iron production are encountered. One can notice the appearance of "zolniki" (large accumulations of ashes) in the Late Scythian settlements.

Objects related to fishing and fish remains are now represented in both groups, but they belong to different types, and the clay loom weights are more crudely made in the barbarian sites.         

Borrowing the Greek cultural elements may be suggested in the use of more various types and shapes of ware by the population of the hinterland. In Late Scythian settlements amphora fragments constitute from 32-35% to 50%, wheel-made pottery is represented, but nowhere does it equal, or even come close to, the hand-made (in the Olbian group hand made pottery constitute 6-7%). The inhabitants of the Late Scythian settlements regularly received  imports, but the difference in it's quantity and variety, and also in the  numismatic material is striking (between two groups). In the southern group Olbian coins were used, but in the northern only a few silver denarii have been found, and one coin from Pantikapaion. Ceramic complex in  settlements distinguishes in proportion of different kind of  pottery, but at least several shards of various wheel-made vessels (as in Kairy, for example) are always found. Gray clay ware, red clay and red glaze is constantly represented. Main shapes in hand-made pottery are pots and bowls (type of Zarubinetskaja cultura), there are encountered also vessels with foot, Sarmatian jugs and censers, large vessels of Thracian types, copies of wheel-made pottery.

Graffitis are widespread only in the Olbian group, and are rare in the barbarious settlements, where among them are encountered letters of the Greek alphabet (on wheel made pottery) and Sarmatian tamga symbols. One may also see Greek influence in the finds of two terracottas, but the main cult objects show barbarian features. The appearance of completely new elements is observed, which have analogies in Celtic and Dacian monuments and also in the Poenesti-Lukashevka culture (Bastarnai, possibly). Finds of iron arrowheads of Sarmatian type are noted, finds of fibulae and mirrors of Sarmatian type etc. 

 
There is a difference also in the breakdown of cereal crops. In the settlements of the southern group naked wheat predominates, while in the northern, as among the Scyths of the preceding period, millet predominates, followed by barley and oats, with wheat in last place. The composition of the herd and the ratio of domestic to wild animals is similar in both groups of settlements. In the Late Scythian settlements they raised pigs and ate fish.

As for basis of dating, Rhodian amproras en masse provide the chronological indicator for the second century BC. The stratigraphic levels containing fragments of Rhodian amphoras of the northern Black Sea region lie beneath a level which contains pieces of light clay amphoras with double-reeded and profiled handles. In settlements of the Lower Dnieper region light clay amphoras comprise the main amphora material in the early strata and the most probable date of their foundation is to the second half of  the 2nd century (according to the earliest finds) or the turn of the second/first centuries-beginning of the first. Using a classification and chronology, proposed by S.Vnukov, one can define Koan amphoras with acorn toe, cigar-shaped body and sharp profiles of neck and handles, and a large quantity of late Sinopian and late Heraclean amphoras. Acorn toes had appeared from the second half of 2nd century BC, cigar-shaped body is a feature of the 1st century BC, and also the sharper bends of handles. Type Sinopa III and   late Heraclean amphoras, dated from the middle of the 1st century BC until the end of the 1st century AD, are the most popular. N.Pogrebova noticed 7 fragments of Rhodian amphoras (in the upper stratum) and a stamp of Archembrot (Vth group, 150-108 by V.Grace and 134-133 by G.Finkielsztejn). Chersonesian stamps were dated in the1950-1960s in other chronology, they were also basis for dating the settlements to the3rd and the 2nd centuries (but they belong to groups I and IIA). The same date was proposed for the so-called wheel-shaped stamps, which now are considered as Akanthian, dated to the second half of the 4th-beginning of the 3rd BC. Sinopian and Thasian stamps, which were thought as 3rd century date, belong to groups of the 4th century BC. Most types of amphoras of the 4th century BC were dated earlier as the 4th-3-rd centuries BC. Koan amphoras were dated to the 3rd-2nd century BC. Fragments of Egyptian glass vessels were datable to the 2nd century BC and now such things are dated from the 1st century BC. From the settlement of Znamenskoe comes a find of a single fibula of middle-La Tene type, it is to be dated to the second half of the 2nd century BC (according to K.Kasparova). Several fragments of lagynoi have been found, perhaps of Rhodian manufacture, and there are finds of Megarian cups. These isolated artefacts may determine the beginning of a renewed occupation of the earlier deserted territory in the second half of the 2nd century BC.   

Examining the types of hand made pottery and other elements in the material culture one can conclude on the basis of the ethnic and cultural situations in the Olbian rural districts and in the hinterland (Scythian area at the first stage), that they remained still different at the second stage of coexistence in the region by surveying. Thus in the barbarian area a new cultural phenomenon - “Late Scythian culture” -  was formed as a result of the arrival and a mixture of populations, which included Scythian,  Sarmatian (the new steppe nomads), Thracian and Zarubinets cultures (a neighbouring settled population to the north, considered as protoslavs by some scholars). One may also note that no Sarmatian and Zarubinets component is detectable in the Olbian settlements, where as the Thracian is more noticeable.

The second stage in the existence of the settlements in the Lower Dnieper region is based throughout on a similar economic structure. Both groups of settlements of this period retained a settled farming and cattle raising population which was also engaged in fishing and trade. This, to a significant degree, was the reason for a certain similarity between them, although differences are traceable at the level of archaeological cultures.  

However, even at this stage of coexistence the population of the hinterland cannot be characterised as totally hellenized, paying attention to their agriculture based on millet, buildings defined as a mixture of Greek influence and barbarious features; they did not use the potter’s wheel, trade with circulation of coins was an exclusion, religious forms and spiritual life were of barbarious type while there are several Greek objects. The aggregation of people of different ethnic extraction is shown both in the Olbian territory and in the interior lands at this stage, however, ethhnic and cultural differencies between barbarians and Greeks are still considered important and find expression in the archaeological material.

Anthropological data (accordingly to T.Nazarova) allow us to propose the possibility of a fusion of Greek and barbarian ethnic groups in the Roman period, which ties in with the cultural borrowings at this time.

In sum, the archaeological material attest the fact that in the Lower Dnieper region the existence of a settled population was not uninterrupted, as was earlier thought, and both Hellenic and barbarian cultural traditions are represented. As the comparison of the northern groups of settlements demonstrates, the barbarian tradition displays no clear continuity in its development. While the early northern group of settlements belong to the Scythian culture, in the sites of the late stage only isolated elements of it manifest themselves, with the Zarubinetskaja culture and Sarmatian component substantially represented. Aspects of the cultures of the western region show up clearly and there is a noticeable Greek influence. It should be noted that the sharply contrasting opposition of Hellenic and barbarian cultural traditions which is observed in the early stage of the existence of the settlements in the Lower Dnieper region later loses its significance. In the Roman period it is possible to trace both a cultural borrowing and an ethnic mingling. However, both cultural traditions, as earlier, find expression in the archaeological material.

Year 2002